**_Write the story of humanity’s future._**

**To create a better world, we need to first imagine it—and the work required to get there.**

The Protopian Prize is a fiction contest inviting you to share your vision of people working toward liberatory futures, meeting obstacles, and making real change. “Protopian”—a word coined by Kevin Kelly, one of our contest's judges—means an achievable, optimistic future characterized by continuous, incremental progress rather than revolutionary leaps or a static, perfect state. Protopian stories imagine a future that is neither flawless nor catastrophic, but instead workably better than today. It’s about plausible progress rather than perfection or collapse.

In 2026, our inaugural year, we will present prizes in two categories:

**The Protopian Prize for Public AI**

Imagine AI development, policy, and tools, built for—and following basic principles of— public benefit. Stories might address ethical training, sustainable maintenance, creator-friendly implementation, collective rather than corporate ownership, and/or new uses that complement rather than replace human strengths.

**The Protopian Prize for Democratic Futures**

Imagine institutions, tools, and organizational methods that expand and enhance public autonomy and shared control over societal futures. Stories might address inclusive community-building, decision-making processes, better delivery of public goods, and/or new techniques for combating disinformation, surveillance, and authoritarian constraints.

$5,000 for each category. Winning stories will be published in _In the Loop: Stories from the Future of People, Power, and Machines_, an anthology to be published by MIT Press and edited by judging leads Gideon Lichfield and Ruthanna Emrys, alongside invited stories by professional science fiction authors.  
  
Winners will be asked to sign contracts for the anthology; you do not give us any rights over your story simply by submitting.

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